Research discovers vulnerability in Samsung’s smart TVs

Televisions are meant to be watched, and it would be incredibly creepy if they could watch you too. Well thanks to the introduction of smart TVs with built-in webcams, that is certainly a possibility and according to a researcher at ReVuln, he has discovered that Samsung’s smart TVs are vulnerable in the sense that by exploiting this vulnerability, a hacker could install malicious software which will not only allow them to control your television remotely by changing channels, but could also allow him or her to access the USB drive, and let them listen in and watch you thanks to the built-in webcam and microphone in the smart TV. Samsung has yet to release a statement regarding the matter, but assuming that this vulnerability is real and very much a threat, we expect that updates should be released shortly. In the meantime, what do you guys think? Pretty creepy, huh?

Update: Samsung has issued the following statement:

“We have discovered that only in extremely unusual circumstances a connectivity issue arises between Samsung Smart TV’s released in 2011 and other connected devices. We assure our customers that our Smart TV’s are safe to use. We will release a previously scheduled software patch in January 2013 to further strengthen Smart TV security. We recommend our customers to use encrypted wireless access points, when using connected devices.”